


Sleepover

by NobodyOfficial



Category: The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: Adorable, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, ace!kevin, reassurance, sleepover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 12:21:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12531244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NobodyOfficial/pseuds/NobodyOfficial
Summary: Arnold and Kevin have a sleepover, during which they talk about past crushes and current relationships and eat loads of popcorn.





	Sleepover

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first unprompted thing I've ever written for BoM, I feel like you're all going to hate it, I'm sorry!

It had only been a few days, but Kevin already thought of his room at the missionary centre as home. The village was his whole world at the moment; isolated, but with plenty to learn about and explore. The Missionary Centre was like a school in constant recess, where he could chat with friends and cause just a little trouble, something he certainly hadn't done in school. And the bedroom was his home, so he supposed that made Arnold his family.

The thought was comforting.

"You alright there, buddy?" Kevin asked. Arnold was squirming around in his blanket, trying to fashion it in to a cloak and hood.

"Fine!" He stuck his head out and shook his curls. "I'm just trying to follow proper sleepover etiquette, but I don't think this blanket's big enough." It was true that when they slept they had to curl up in to a tiny ball to fit under the blanket provided. But a sleepover? Kevin didn't know what he was talking about.

"Sleepover? Arnold, I don't think Connor will let anyone else into our room," Kevin fretted. Mentioning Connor's name to Arnold made him feel nervous, as if he'd just given away a big secret, but when Arnold didn't seem to react he relaxed.

"No, no, not with anyone else." Arnold hopped off his bed, then shoved it hard, closing the tiny gap between his bed and Kevin's. The wooden bed frames clicked together, sending a jolt through Kevin. "Just us, we're having a sleepover!"

Arnold looked ecstatic, so Kevin tried to let him down gently. "Why are we having a sleepover?"

"Because, because because..." Arnold jumped back on to the bed and buried under the covers. "The other night you were like 'our beds are so close, it's like having a sleepover' and then I was like 'oh my god yeah, we should have one every night!' and then you did this really fake, nervous laugh like 'huh huh huh, sure' and now we're having a sleepover." He grinned widely, so close now that Kevin could wonder why he'd never got braces.

"Well..." Kevin shuffled over, pressing his shoulder against Arnold's. "We can't have sleepover every night, because then I think we'd get awful tired. But we can have one right now, if you want." He found himself smiling stupidly, egged on by Arnold's enthusiasm. Kevin had never been the type of boy invited to sleepovers, and he felt as though he had nineteen years of stupid crushes, dumb fears, and petty arguments to get off his chest.

"Awesome!" Arnold gave him a fleeting hug, then dangled his head off the side of the bed and rummaged beneath it for something. "I've been secretly stealing poptarts from Chris since we arrived," he explained, voice slightly muffled. "And I brought a load of sweets I thought Connor would take off me, so I hid them under here."

"Ha, yeah," Kevin blushed. "That does sound like Connor." Was he mentioning Connor too much? That was twice in the past few minutes.

Before he could dwell on it for too much longer Arnold sat up again, a small crate stuffed with junk food in his arms. Kevin wondered if this was actually what people ate at sleepovers, then thought that's probably how they managed to stay awake all night. "Here!" The crate was being thrust towards him. "Take whatever you like, this is gonna be so much fun!"

"O-ok." Kevin took what he hoped was a packet of sweet, but which looked like tiny plastic squares. He cringed when Arnold started on a bag of popcorn and spilled half of it on the bed, but he didn't say anything.

"Well," Arnold swallowed much more popcorn than he should've been trying to eat in one go, "Obviously I have the most amazing girlfriend ever and you've met her and you agree with me." Every time Arnold spoke about Nabulungi he practically glowed. They were undeniably adorable and Kevin wanted to be nothing but happy for them, but there was always a small part of him that was jealous. Not of Arnold or Nabulungi specifically, but of their relationship. Kevin wanted someone to love him. He wanted to love someone. "So, do yooou have a crush on anyone, Kevin?"

Kevin's mouth went dry. His heart was hammering. He should say no, of course he should, that's what you say when you have a crush on someone. But this was the first time anyone had ever asked him that and he was desperate to admit his feelings to someone, even if it wasn't to the person who needed to hear about them most. "I-I umm, I ha ha, yeah, umm, I think so, I-I think so." He sounded pathetic. He sounded lovestruck.

"Oh my god, best friend!" Arnold squealed. He grabbed Kevin's arm with buttery fingers. "Tell me absolutely everything, all about it, she's the luckiest girl in the world!"

His arm tensed in Arnold's grip. Now he felt even more inclined to tell him nothing.

"Oh!" Arnold's face fell suddenly. "Oh, sorry! It's not a girl, is it?" Kevin smiled shyly and shook his head. "Sorry, it's just most people assume so, so I try to act like most people, y'know?"

"It's ok, I get it."

"Well then tell me everything!" He was back to his usual exuberant self. "Does he live back home? Gasp!" He actually said gasp. "Is he here in Uganda?"

Kevin didn't reply, instead pursing his lips and raising his eyebrows in a way he hoped was suggestive.

Arnold screwed up his eyes and screamed, "Kevin!"

"Shh!"

"Kevin! That is so cute! Who is it who is it who is it?" He begged.

Kevin's stomach was on a rollercoaster. He couldn't say. Could he? He didn't want to. Yes he did! He had to tell someone, anyone, it felt like a secret weighing down his heart. Unable to utter the name aloud, Kevin brushed Arnold's hair back and whispered in his ear, "It's... It's Connor."

"What?!" Arnold shrieked, scattering sweets all over the bed.

"Shh, shh, please." Kevin tried to placate him, but his own voice sounded just as high pitched and erratic. He couldn't believe he'd just admitted his crush on Connor. He was giddy. The whole thing somehow felt more real now, like before he'd just been fabricating a crush to try and feel something, but now he'd said it aloud he knew he actually liked Connor.

"You guys are gonna be so adorable together," Arnold whispered harshly. The look in his eyes said 'new OTP'. "Tell me all about it, like, when you knew you liked him and what you like about him and how you're gonna ask him out and what your fist date will be like and and and what song you're gonna dance to at your wedding-" Arnold's speech was getting faster and faster, Kevin's head ached listening to him. He didn't know how to reply. He barely knew what having a crush felt like. He hadn't even been planning to ask Connor out!

"Arnold," he interrupted quickly, "I don't know any of these things. Having a crush has always been... Super weird for me. I don't think I do it right. Just, just talk about you for a bit, this is stupid."

Arnold looked torn between his love of talking about his own interests and his duties as a best friend. "No it's not." His love for Kevin won him over. "Tell me about it, that might help."

"Oh, ok." When Kevin had agreed to a sleepover he hadn't thought he'd be getting in to this, but he actually found himself looking forward to getting it off his chest. "Well, the first time I had a crush, what I think was a crush, on a guy I was like fifteen. We didn't use to talk much, but then he recommended this really great book to me, and after that I just thought about him, like, all the time.

"At first I brushed it off, thought I just wanted to be friends with this super cool guy, then I started to get really nervous and awkward whenever I spoke to him. I found I always wanted to impress him. He said my hair was nice once, so from then on I styled my hair differently every day, hoping he'd notice. He did a few times and it was great. I felt giddy whenever he'd compliment me." Kevin sighed dreamily. "He was just so pretty."

"So, so," Arnold urged, "What happened? Did he like you back? Did you ask him out?"

"What? No," Kevin chuckled. "I never could've done that. We were wildly different people. He liked goth makeup and black nail polish with skinny jeans and leather jackets. He had friends and went to parties and got drunk. We had the same interests and the same opinions, we were just different socially, I guess." Arnold looked heartbroken on Kevin's behalf. He'd played those last few years of high school over in his head so many times now he couldn't even feel crushed. In fact, the more he thought about it the more he realised a silent love affair was all he deserved.

"Don't get me wrong," Kevin continued, when it became clear Arnold wasn't going to speak, "I would've happily done everything he wanted to do. I wanted to be there to comfort him when he got drunk at parties, and to drive him home safely. I wanted to help him pick out his jeans and tell him how cute they looked. I just wanted to... Shit," he swore softly, "I just wanted to press my shoulder against his and say nothing. Is that stupid? That's not love, is it? Love is passion and heat and desire. I don't feel any of that. Did I even really like him or am I just trying to capture something that's not there?"

Arnold thought carefully and lengthily about his reply, shushing Kevin three times and thoughtfully demolishing several poptarts. When he was finished deliberating with himself he looked Kevin right in the eye and said, "Kevin, I think you are asexual."

"Oh." Kevin was pleasantly surprised. That word had been bouncing around his head for a few years now, but he'd always been too afraid to pin it down and define himself by it. Strangely, it was comforting to be labelled by someone else. "I was thinking I was asexual too, but I didn't really know for sure. I was kind of afraid to be wrong. Thanks."

"Don't let that stop you asking Connor out though," Arnold continued hurriedly. "I feel like he likes you, and he's just coming to terms with his own sexuality, he won't have a problem with yours. Plus, you seem kind of torn up about this past crush still. Admitting your feelings is hard, but at least you'll get a definite answer. I think that's good, anyway." Kevin realise he'd never actually heard Arnold sat anything stupid. His thoughts tended to wander and his voice was loud and grating, but even his lies were intelligent and well crafted. When Arnold grinned at Kevin his teeth were dyed blue with artificial colours.

"Thanks buddy," Kevin said, leaning in to Arnold. "You're really good at all this relationship stuff, thanks for helping me out."

"I'm good at relationships?" Arnold scoffed. "If you want actual advice don't listen to me! I'm the worst person to come to." His mood had rapidly become gloomy and dark. He dropped his shoulder cape and pushed his crate of sweets on to the floor, looking desperately sorry for himself.

"I think you're pretty great, Arnold," Kevin tried to reassure him. "What's wrong?"

"Look," his voice was tired, more grown up than Kevin had ever heard it, "I'm an overweight, Middle Eastern Mormon with ADHD. Guys and gals don't exactly come flocking. All I have to offer is crap I've read in fanfiction, or seen in movies. I don't know how relationships work in real life." He scrunched his face up, trying not to cry. "Let's face it, Nabulungi'll break up with me in, like, a week anyway."

"Hey! Don't say that!" Kevin shook him a little by the shoulders. "You're cute and funny and smart. And you asked Nabulungi out and she said yes! And she loves you! That takes a whole bunch of courage, you should be more confident in yourself!"

"What've I got to be confident about? Nabulungi's so great. I'm not that great."

Kevin knew a million and one things Arnold had to be confident about, but he knew they wouldn't help. Arnold already knew how intelligent and witty and kind he was, what he needed was reassurance that what he saw as flaws weren't really all bad. And thankfully, they weren't. "Well, for a start, you're an overweight, Middle Eastern Mormon with ADHD," Kevin beamed.

"Huh?"

"That means you're not only super attractive, but you're really soft, which is wonderful for multiple reasons." He paused to hug a blushing Arnold tightly. "And you've got such awesome family history! You can tell Nabulungi all about America and your family, as well as the Middle East and where your parents are from. Plus, you're part of the greatest religion ever! And you've made your own religion! That's remarkable!" Arnold shrugged and tried to dispute what Kevin was saying, but his efforts were half hearted.

"And there's absolutely nothing wrong with having ADHD. It just means you have loads of interesting conversation topics. You're great, Arnold, don't worry." Kevin's warm sentiment got him tackled to the bed as the boys giggled and wrestled with the blankets.

"Having a best friend is so amazing," Arnold grinned. "I feel great!"

"You know-" Kevin took a breath, calming his hyper speech, "You know, I've never actually had a best friend before either. I can share a load of weird things with you and I like it. Thanks."

"I think I'll go to sleep now," Arnold said. He just stared at Kevin. They laughed.

"You're not going to sleep! Stop staring at me!"

"I am!" He stared and Kevin stared back and they giggled.

"Ok, we'll both go to sleep then." Kevin closed his eyes, then snapped them immediately back open. Arnold still had his eyes open, smiling sleepily. "Heavenly Father, Arnold! Go to sleep," Kevin chuckled.

"Alright then." Arnold finally closed his eyes, rolling over and taking Kevin's blanket with him.

Kevin let him.

**Author's Note:**

> What??? Forcing my issues on to fictional characters??? Me? Of course I am, what else is fanfic for?!
> 
> Tumblr: everyonewholovesmehasdied
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
